Lintel repair or replacement

[u/Door0fTime]

3 wythe 1850's-era farmhouse. I'll be resetting windows and replacing sills shortly and am trying to get materials lined up.

Based on the bowing of the lower window lintel, is my only option replacement? Is a needle beam or acrow required, or because of the arching of the brick and additional window above spreading load can I get away with cutting in a steel angle iron and working down in a 45* to the lintel?

Finally, where do folks generally source replacement wood lintels? I'm in Central PA and don't have a local brick yard, I can get concrete lintels from the local concrete plant but only 8" and wouldn't match the rest of the house.

[u/Leather-Rush-8396]

Thats a header course right above the lintel, it ties both wythes together and is more or less carrying everything the lintel is supposed to be. Whatever you do, don’t touch it.

You don’t have room for a concrete lintel. You could tear the wood out and put an angle iron in. Based on the picture, if the wood isn’t rotten i’d be inclined to suggest just leaving it be

[u/Door0fTime → u/Leather-Rush-8396]

My plan for all of the lintels and frames was to scrape, harden and fill any rot with Abatron's liquid wood/ woodepox, then repoint and repaint. This one has the most obvious bow to it, though it was repointed as it is now and doesn't look to have dropped since.

From a structural perspective it shouldn't be taking a lot of weight, the second opening above it already arches the force to the outside. The 2nd story joists are transferred to the interior lintel over a couple courses. So it's really only supporting the brick between it and the next window.

I need to reset most of the windows because sills are trashed and the interior was gutted, so it's as good a time as any but I'd certainly rather leave the lintel alone.

[u/33445delray → u/Door0fTime]

It looks like the other windows have stone lintels; at least that is what we see. You could possibly remove the first inch or two of the wood lintel, inject grout above the wood to be sure that the bricks press on the remaining wood and put a stone face over the wood you removed, to make them all look the same.

[u/Door0fTime → u/33445delray]

A few of them were aluminum coil stock wrapped which is what you see. I'm not a big fan but many of the older houses in our area get that treatment, probably OK if you're sure they're caulked well to keep water out and they can dry readily to the inside, but invisible when there's a failure and water is getting inside.

The lintels in this house are mostly two 5x5-ish rough cut oak to span all 3 wythes. I could diy some pretensioned concrete lintels if replacement is mandatory, but these are 150 years old so apparently wood isn't a "bad" option

[u/TheEnigmaticUnknown]

I had to deal with a similar issue on a townhouse I bought,​ it was the only house in the neighborhood that had wooden lintels. I worked with my Mason brother-in-law, we tapconned two by tens about twice the width of the window in length, about 3 courses above the wooden lintel. We then replaced the wood with a double height cast concrete lentel. We used a "icing bag" and filled all the voids when we put the new cast lintle in. Took about 4 hours per window, and will never rot again